Doing something for the first time inevitably involves some kind of leap into the dark – and that even applies to the simple act of clicking on a chat invitation button.
Now with customer order taking service, we are not suggesting for one moment that the sight of a chat button popping up on a computer screen is in any way intimidating. Quite the opposite. A friendly call to action offering help and assistance will be perceived by most web users as a positive thing. But that doesn’t mean everyone will click through. There are certain unknowns involved and your customer may well ask some fundamental questions. Will this be helpful? Am I going to be subjected to a hard sell? Who will I encounter?
So here’s the good news. When customers do click through to chat to agents they generally find it to be a positive experience. Indeed, when we polled 5,000 consumers worldwide , 92% of those who had used chat to seek help from sales agents in the run up to Christmas 2018 said they would do so again. Satisfaction rates for chat – as measured by the survey presented to customers at the end of every session – are high. Typically about 90% of users say their experience was good or very good.
However, you can’t take satisfaction as a given. When customers use chat, conversion rates rise, along with average order values. So it follows that you want your customers to take advantage of chat – or indeed other channels such as phone call back or multi-media walk throughs – whenever they need it. If that’s going to happen, you really need to make the first order taking experience as positive as possible.
Order taking from a potential customer
A potential customer will click on a chat button because he or she needs help with a specific problem. That could be a question about delivery or a query about product specifications or alternatives. So it’s vital that the sales agent can answer order taking questions and resolve issues quickly.
Training is key. An agent engaging with a customer via chat is just as much a member of the front line team as an assistant in a bricks and mortar store or someone taking a call over the phone for order taking. They will expect good service and the chat agent should have all product knowledge required to deal successfully with the query.
Whats important in order taking service?
It’s important to remember that the customer won’t simply be clicking through out of the blue. Pro-active chat invitations are triggered by real time analysis of individual customer behaviour coupled with business rules that define when an intervention takes place. So when a chat invite is served to a customer, the agent in charge of the session will already know what the customer has been looking at should also a good insight into why that individual might need help. – To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed and this knowledge should help a well-trained agent get order taking right to the point.
That’s not to say that engagement should be perfunctory. As in person or on the phone, chat agents should be friendly and attentive while also bearing in mind that the customer would probably rather simply be browsing.
There is a balance here. If – as is generally the case – the agent’s ultimate goal is to drive sales then it’s important that time is taken to address all the customers questions. At the same time, the quicker the issue is resolved, the happier the customer will be. This is particularly true on mobile devices. So it is well worth investing time and energy developing your live chat sales team. It’s an investment that will pay off in terms of rising sales and higher conversion rates.